Please Appoint an Advisor on LGBT Youth Issues

Urge the Obama Administration to appoint a youth advisor to work with the administration on the everyday emotional and complex issues that LGBT youth face.

In the past couple of years, our country has seen a tremendous swing in regards to the acceptance of minority groups, but research and statistics still show that LGBT youth are going through personal struggles both at school and at home. Some of these struggles consist of bullying, physical abuse, insolation and lack of support. These issues have resulted in attributing to an elevated percentage of LGBT youth that drop out of school, become homeless, abuse drugs and even commit suicide.

According to PFLAG, approximately 30% of gay and lesbian youth drop out of school due to hardships from physical and verbal abuse. This statistic is caused by the lack of support and intervention for gay and lesbian students by teachers and school administrators. Additionally, the few teachers that would like to step in, often do not have the proper training on how to intervene in anti-LGBT bullying.

Sometimes these youth don’t have support within the home, which contributes to one in every two LGBT youth being rejected by their parents. In 30% of cases, parents will kick their kids out of their own house, attributing to the fact that 40% of all homeless youth are LGBT.

Please express your strong support to the White House. It's time to give our youth a voice!

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Photo Credit: Picture of Elegance

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